Morton was born in Salisbury,
Indiana, on August 4, 1823. After
the death of his mother, his father sent him to live with 2
staunch Presbyterian aunts, who imbued in him a degree of
inflexibility that marked his long career in politics. Morton had
some formal elementary schooling and studied 1 year at Wayne
County Seminary, though he acquired most of his education by
reading. Dissatisfied with brief careers as a clerk and in the
hatters trade, he attended Miami University for 2 years, read
law, and became a highly respected corporate lawyer whose
services were in demand by the railroads.
In 1848 he failed in a bid to become prosecuting attorney on the
Democratic ticket. Holding no elective office, he remained active
in the party. Rather than see Democrats weakened by internal
disagreement, he lent his support to the Wilmot Proviso,
legislation that would have prohibited slavery in any territory
won during the Mexican War. But in 1854 he took a firm stand
against the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Popular Sovereignty,
thereafter associating himself with the Peoples party, the
forerunner of the Republicans in Indiana.
Republicans nominated Morton for governor in 1856, campaigning on
a platform in favor of protectionism for U.S. industry and
homestead legislation. Though he was not elected, he expected to
win the nomination again in 1860. Instead, party leaders gave
former Whig Henry S. Lane the first slot on the ticket and Morton
the second slot. When this moderate slate gave the Republicans a
majority in the legislature, they elected Lane to the U.S. Senate
and Morton succeeded to the governorship.
A skillful political opportunist, Morton emerged as the most
powerful and, by some estimates, the best of the war governors.
He answered Abraham Lincoln's call for troops by raising twice
the number requested for Federal service. Certain the war would
be brief, he labored to keep in uniform every Indianan who
volunteered, so that none would be prevented from serving when
the War Department began refusing troops it was unprepared to
feed and equip. Largely because of his efforts to encourage
volunteerism, Indiana provided 150,000 enlistments to the Federal
army with little resort to the draft.
The governor generally backed Lincolns war measures, though he
complained about excessive military arrests, resisted the draft,
and opposed freeing Southern slaves until the president issued
his emancipation proclamation 1 Jan. 1863. Jealous for his
states prestige in the Union, he also clashed repeatedly with
Federal authorities in his determination to prevent other states
from being treated more favorably. He waged a bitter campaign
against Copperheads (Peace Democrats) and when growing peace
sentiment pitted him against a legislature threatening to limit
his military powers, rather than call the hostile representatives
into session Morton kept the state government running with loans
from Washington, advances from the private sector, and profits
from the state arsenal he had established. In 1864 he was
reelected along with a Republican legislature, in part by
arranging to have 9,000 sick and wounded Indiana soldiers
furloughed home in time to vote.
Worn by long hours and stress, in summer 1865 Morton suffered a
stroke that left him paralyzed. He nonetheless stayed in politics
as an uncompromising foe of the Democrats. Initially a proponent
of Lincolns lenient plan for reconstructing the seceded states,
in the postwar years he allied with Radical Republicans. After
being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1867, he led the movement to
pass the 14th Amendment providing for black suffrage.
Felled by a second stroke Aug. 1877, Morton traveled to Indiana
to recuperate, dying at his home in Indianapolis 1 Nov. in the
middle of his second congressional term.Source: "Historical Times Encyclopedia of the
Civil War" Edited by Patricia L. Faust